Activists Work to Finish Film About Transgender Elder Miss Major

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy has a story to tell and two San Francisco-based filmmakers are determined to tell it.

A pioneering transgender activist and elder, Miss Major, as she's formally known to circles in the Bay Area and across the country, participated in the Stonewall Rebellion of 1969 and now works as the Executive Director of the Transgender GenderVariant Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP). She's formerly incarcerated, a former sex worker, and an icon in the world of Bay Area queer politics.

Annalise Ophelian and StormMiguel Florez have been working on a documentary about Miss Major's life since last February, but they've recently taken to Kickstarter to help bring the film across the finish line:

As queer and transgender filmmakers, we want to see our stories and our communities represented on screen with authenticity and fierceness. We believe all audiences, LGBTQ and straight, are smart and savvy enough to feel compelled by stories that don't need manufactured drama to be dramatic. We love documentary films that challenge the way we think and feel without offering easy answers, and inspire us to break through stereotypes and preconceived notions. And we're committed to bringing innovative visual storytelling and high production values to this work, to create art that stirs the senses and takes the viewer on a journey.

So far they've raised more than half of their goal of $25,000, but there are only eight days left to raise more money.